■Tour country and its cause. A DISCOURSE PREACHED OCTOBER 2d, 1864, fN THE SOUTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OF BKOOKLYlSr, Mev. SAMUEL T. SBEAB, Pastor, PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. BROOKLYN : THR union" steam PK ESSES. 10 FRONT STREET. \ 1864. \ if U
COUNTRY ITS CAUSE. A DISCOURSE PREACHED OCTOBER 2d, 1864, IN THE SOUTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OF BROOKLYN, BY Rev. SA3IUEL T. Sl^J^AM, JPdsict^. ' PUBLISHED BY BEQUEST. BROOKLYN : "THE union" steam PRESSES, 10 FRONT STREET, 1864.
Brooklyn, October 2, 1861. Bev. Samuel T. Spear, D. D. Rev. and Dear Sir :—Having listened with much edification to your discourse of yesterday, from the text Romans 13, Chap., 22, and appreciating the deep importance to our country at the present time, of the principles and views therein enunciated and so ably vindicated and enforced, and convinced of the beneficial results to the cause of Christianity and patriotism, which would flow from the publication of this discourse ; we respectfully solicit a copy of the same for that purpose : WALTER S. GRIFFITH, J. S. T. STRANAHAN, GEORGE B. LINCOLN, GEORGE W. PARSONS, HUGH AIRMAN, GEORGE A. JARVIS, CZAR DUNNING, S. B. BUTCHER, G. R. DOWNING, JOHN WILLIAMS, E. C. HALLIDAY, A. L. VAN BUREN, NEHEMIAH KNIGHT. GEORGE P. WIIXEY, , . ' DAy=IK .B. BA"JLIS, . ! < ' "wiLLiIAJ: HANNAHS, FRANKLIN CLARK, S. R. HUTCHINSON, D. J. WHITING, HENRY HILL, W. H. BOW, P. S. ELY, J. H. JACKSON, WILLIAM JACKSON, GEORGE C. WHITE, B. L. SANDERSON, JAMES McMULLEN, W. M. AIRMAN, WALTER S. GOVE, WILLIAM W. ROSE, FORBES DUNDERDALE, R. F. HOWES. Brooklyn, October 5, 1864. To Messrs. Griffith and others : Gentlemen :—I have received your request for a copy of my sermon on " Our Country and its Cause. " I herewith transmit a copy for the purpose named in your letter, hoping thereby to serve the interests of our country. ^ ? 7 j^4 S. T. SPEAR.
OUR COUNTRY AND ITS CAUSE. "WHOSOEVER THEREFORE RESISTETH THE POWER, RESISTETH THE ORDINANCE OP GOD; AND THEY THAT RESIST, SHALLVREOEIVEITOJ JTHEMSELVES DAMNATION."—Rom. 13 : 2. GOD'S LAW AGAINST KEBELLION. The theme of tlie sermon which I am about to preach in yoiir hearing, I shall entitle Our Country and its Cause. The text, a fitting passage for this purpose, contains the law of God on the subject of rebellion. Taken in itself, and in its corollaries, it underlies and determines all my views in respect to the present war. The verse immediately precedent, commands every soul to be " subject unto the higher powers," clearly referring to the civil authorities. The reason for this subjection is given in the fact, that " the powers that be, are ordained of God." Hence the religious obligation of obedience to the civil authority. Hence, too, he that " resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of Godf and hence again, those who resist, are justly obnoxious to the penalty with which civil law is armed. Such is the law of God in respect to the sin of rebellion. THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, GOD'S ORDINANCE. No one, certainly no religious man, will doubt whether the Government of these United States is " the ordinance of God." If this were true of the Roman power referred to by Paul, not- "withstanding its heathenish and oppressive character, then it certainly must be true of the national authority established in this land. While this Government as to its form and method of continuance, was originally created by the people, yet being thus created, it becomes " the ordinance of God," entitled to the obedience of the subject, and divinely armed with penal power to suppress and punish all unlawful resistance to its claims.
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT SUPREME. Nor again, will any enlightened and candid man deny, that the Government of these United States is the supreme civil anthority in this land, acting directly upon all the people in all the States and thronghout all the Territories. It is a Govern7rient^ and not a treaty or leagne between independent nations. The Constitution, and all laws passed in pnrsnance thereof, and all treaties made under the same, are expressly declared to be the swpreine law of the land. Hence any effort of a State, or any portion of the people to vacate or destroy this authority, whether in the form of nullification, secession, or military resistance, is treasonable in its character, imposing upon the Supreme Government the duty of arresting the effort, and bringing its authors to justice. This it must do, or cease to be a Government. If it has not the power to do this, then it is not a Government. If having the power, the officers of law decline to wdeld it, then they are traitors themselves, unworthy of their trust, and enemies of the public good. A STATEMENT OP FACTS. Bearing these principles in mind, we come to a grave question of fact : How happens it that this once peaceful and happy nation is now involved in all the perils and sorrows of a dreadful civil war? Who began this contest? Let a word or two of history be my answer to this question. In the autumn of 1860, the people, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, entered upon a Presidential Canvass, whose result was the choice of Abraham Lincoln as their President for the period of four years from the 4th of March next ensuing. This election was strictly legal in its time, aud legal in its majority ; and hence its constitutional effect was to make Mr. Lincoln President of these LTnited States, and as such, the Minister of God. Was Mr. Lincoln so recognized by all the people ? The answer of this question forms one of the darkest and most melancholy chapters of our political history. The proceedings adopted by large bodies of the people in the slave-holding States, will be
memorable alike for their mireasoning infatuation, their moral criminality, and the terrible woes to which they have given birth. It was a sad hour for them, and for us, when they broke the bond of peace, and threw down the dire gauntlet of war. Acting under the inspiration of treacherous leaders, who had been long waiting for an opportunity and maturing their plans, the Southern people refused to be governed by the legally expressed will of the majority. Though they shared in the election, they declined to abide by the choice. Under the pretended right of Secession, State after State professed to withdraw from the Union ; and when seven States had thus withdrawn, they organized a Confederate Government at Montgomery, in Alabama, hostile in its character, repudiating the authority of the Constitutional President, and forcibly taking possession of the Forts, Mints, Property, and Military Stores of the United States lying within its pretended jurisdiction. In a word, these seceders made war upon this Government. ,Tliese acts on their part were acts of Avar. All this was done during the winter of 1860 and '61, and while Mr. Buchanan yet held the office of President, surrounded, I am sorry to say, by as infamous a nest of traitors in his Cabinet and among his counsellors as ever disgraced this fallen world. That winter was one of the darkest periods in the history of this whole tragedy. In the Spring of 1861, Mr. Lincoln was formally inaugurated into office, and became in fact President of these United States, being bound by the solemnities of an oath to support the Constitution, and execute the laws of the land. He took occasion to address the whole people, to exhort the insurgents in the most paternal manner not to pursue their mad purpose of dissolving the Union—assuring them that he had no disposition to interfere with a single one of their Constitutional rights, yet distinctly informing them that he meant to assert the supreme jurisdiction of this Government, and faithfully execute the laws. The Inaugural of the President was worthy of the man, and worthy of the hour. It inspired the nation with hope, especially when contrasted with t^'e vacillating imbecility of Mr. Buchanan. All honest people felt that it was right. Traitors
6 sneered at it ; bnt patriots ■welcomed it as alike considerate and firm. As the first ofiicial utterance of the President, it was accepted as a great relief from the oppressive uncertainty which had hitherto Imrdened the public heart. It gave promise that all was'not to be lost. In a little more than a month after this inauguration, the insurgents, by the express order of Jefferson Davis, made the attack upon Fort Sumter. Anderson and his noble band met the attack in the name of their country ; and yet after a terrible bombardment, for which the Kebels had been months preparing, these defenders of the flag were compelled to surrender. Down went the symbol of the nation's honor, and up went the flag of treason —a scene that stung every loyal heart to the very quick. Almost immediately four other States rushed into the arms of the rebellion, —States, too, in which the popular vote had been unequivocally adverse to this dreadful experiment. Against the will of the people they were dragged in by the machinations and intrigues of desperate and wicked men. Public threats were uttered, and traitorous preparations made for the capture of Washington. Some 30,000 Pebel troops were already under arms ; and the Confederate Congress at Montgomery had passed a bill for raising 100,000 more, and that too before a single soldier had been enlisted in defense of the nation. This state of things laid the basis for that wonderful uprising of public feeling in the loyal States, which swept everything before it. The people saw that the Rebels meant war, that their leaders were terribly in earnest, that the day of negotiation and compromise was past, and that nothing but the sword could save the nation. In the name of their country, in the name of the Constitution, burning too under the inspirations of a glorious history, the people of tlie loyal States were ready to accept the dreadful issue of war. Traitors at the North and Northern Sympathizers with treason were for the moment Inn-led headlong from the public regard. They dare not face the intense passion of the hour. The President, as it was his solemn duty to do, gave official and legal form to tliis feeling of the national heart. He summoned the nation to arms. He did not begin the war, as some
affirm who ought to know better: he simply accepted a war already begun, during the administration of his predecessor. So far as the insurgents are concerned, he found the country in a state of war. Having called for 75,000 troops to defend the Capital, he convened the Congress of the United States, to prepare for the appalling struggle thus forced upon the people. Warmeasures were speedily adopted ; and the nation, as yet unskilled in the art of war, and with no adequate apprehension of the greatness of the work, committed her life and her fortunes to the God of battles. She resolved to put down this rebellion by military force. This is the precise thing which she announced to the world, and to which she committed herself before all mankind. For a little more than three years the Government has been actively engaged in carrying out this decree. Large sums of money have been expended, and a great many lives sacrificed ; and still, the war problem has not yet reached its final solution. The work is still on hand, to be prosecuted or abandoned. THE MORAL NATURE OF THE STRUGGLE. It is then perhaps a good time to submit the following question to our consciences, and to our God : Did the nation do right, did the President do right, and did Congress do right, in accepting the military issue in the circumstances now recited ? Was it right to attempt the forcible suppression of this rebellion ? I thought so at the time ; and I still think so. I know, that there are some so called Peace-men, who cry for peace on almost any terms, who denounce the war on the part of the Government as cruel and wicked, who have done their utmost to embarrass the Administration in its prosecution, who have used even the harp of a thousand strings with which to play all the tunes of a croaker, some of whom though gentle as lambs towards the rebellion, are very belligerent towards the Government, These persons, in my judgment, are either traitors at heart, or do not correctly apprehend the true nature of this contest. What then is its nature, considered in a moral point of view ? To this question I give a two-fold answer : First, on the part of the Rebels it is treason^ open, malignant
8 treason ac^ainst the National Government, repudiating its jurisdiction, and designed to destroy its territorial integrity, —treason long planned, as many of its leaders have distinctly affirmed,— treason too against 'A. po])ular government, committed by the very class of men who for years had controlled the political councils of this nation, —treason for no cause that justifies a forcible revolution,—treason without just provocation or excuse,—treason inthe supposed interests of a slaveholding aristocracy, and against the rights of the masses. No man can point to any act of this Government, any law of Congress, or any act of the President, or any principle adopted by any political party in the Northern States, or any act of State Legislatures, that before God can afford the least justification for this rebellion. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the immediate occasion of the outbreak ; but I ask in all soberness. Had not the people a right to choose whom they would for President % Mr. Stephens, one of the ablest of Southern statesmen, told the people of Georgia, that this election furnished no just occasion for secession. You look in vain to the Constitution for any such right. The right does not exist in the plan of our national system ; and the thing itself can never be accomplished without destroying its integrity. Hence I say distinctly and strongly, that this struggle on the part of the Rebels is simply the struggle of traitors against the supreme authority of the land. Such it was in the outset ; and such it is to-day. It is, moreover, the most wicked treason in its principles and purposes, that was ever perpetrated in the history of man. I must call things by their right names. With me a spade is a spade ; and a traitor is a traitor. '' Our present adversaries" are traitors ; and while occupying this attitude, and seeking to subvert the Government of my country, they are not my political brethren. I do not recognize them as such. I contem])late them only as criminals, public enemies, deadly assassins against the order and peace of society. I know full well that some people have honeyed words, soft phrases, ambiguous rhetoric in application to this issue ; some who are unsparing in their denunciations of the Government, and apply the very vilest language to the President, do not seem to know that there are any armed traitors in this land ; it is perhaps conven-
9 ieiit for them not to know it ; yet iny moral natnre makes it utterly impossible for me thus to deal with this wicked thing. I call it treason, and its authors traitors —^^just wliat it is, and just what they are. This is my diction for every man, whether Northern or Southern, Mdio knowingly and willfully puts himself in alliance with this wicked rebellion. I began the diction in the outset, and I expect to continue it to the end. I utterly scorn those political exigencies and sinister ends, by which this fact is sought to be ignored. I can have no sympathy with parties, platforms, candidates, or speakers, that fail to recognize this fact. This, let me tell you, is the vital fact in the question. Take it out ; and the whole character of the struffffle is at once changed. Turning then, in the second place, to the Government, you have an effort of established authority to suppress an unhallowed rebellion. Such it was in the commencement, and such it continues to be. Some, I know, charge the Administration with adding other purposes to this war, especially the abolition of slavery ; but the charge is not true. Mr. Lincoln jn his treatment of the slavery question has repeatedly said, that as President invested with war-powers, he should deal with slavery solely and only in its relation to the question of victory and the preservation of the Union. He may not have always been wise, or he may have been wise ; but his policy and the policy of the Grovernment are perfectly clear. Take his own words : ^ My enemies pretend I am carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. So long as I am President, it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of restoring the Union.''' All his acts agree with this statement. The distinct and positive mission of this Government —the thing whicJi it has been, and is still trying to do— is to put down this rebellion. To state its position differently, is to utter a glaring untruth. Let the Rebels lay down their arms ; let them do what every good citizen is bound to do, and will do ; let them obey the laws of the land ; and the fighting will come to an end at once, and all the questions to be adjusted thereafter, including that of slavery, will be remitted to the Courts of law and the legislation of Congress. But so long as the rebels continue to fight, the Govern-
10 ment has no alternative bnt to meet them hy an armed force, doing its ntmost to compel their siilmiissioii. The case admits of no other course. An}' other would be fatal to our nationality. Any other would have resulted in the dissolution of the Union, and proved the tinal death of the Great Re])ublic. Men not having the res])onsibility of conducting the war, may find fault with this or that measure of the Government : yet I affirm that any Administration, be it Democratic or Republican, really in earnest, really meaning to conquer the rebellion and preserve the Union, would have been compelled to adopt substantially the very measures that have been adopted. Anj^ Administration would have been compelled to resort to the war-powers of Government, —to raise armies, provide money, build ships, fight battles, bombard cities, blockade the Southern coast, in short, to do everything justified by the usuges of civilized warfare, to weaken the enemy and strengthen its own cause. If you fight, you must fight. You nmst not 7>?ay ^^S^^^? ^^it actually do the work. It is a terrible process; blood flows; mcH are wounded and killed; families weep ; the land groans ; the heart sickens at the sad necessity ; but, in the presence of an armed rebellion, the end both justifies and demands tlie means. The question is—Shall this Government be subverted ? Shall this glorious Union l)e dissolved ? Shall this nationality die i Shall armed treason be successful, and shall posterity for ages to come be cursed with the calamities of this success ? This is the (juestion ; and in comparison with it all others are insignificant. The Rebels have made the sword the only instrument of its solution. In using that sword the nation is simply defending itself, defending its own life, and defending all the interests which are committed to that life. A people that will not do this, do not deserve to be a people ; and they will not be long. Disintegration, anarchy, and ruin will very soon be their fate. Civil authority that cannot be maintained is but the name without the thing. Inrespect then to the moral question, I take tlie ground, that the Government is right, morally right before God, and that it will so appear on the page of inq^artial history, in wielding the military power of the country for the utter extinction of this
n rebellion. Here I have no donbt, and never had any. I do not belong to that class of persons who ai<6 in doubt on this question, wlio cannot tell whether the Rebels are right, w the Government is right. For all the purposes of ni}^ own action, I assume absolutely, without hesitation or doubt, that the 7'ectitude is witli the Government, and that the God of that rectitude is also there. This rebellion is not the fault of the Government. It is not the fault of the Northern people. Is was not gotten ,up by the Northern people, or bv any section of them. It is not due to what some are pleased to style Northern fanaticism. It is the creature of the Soutliern mind, chiefly of a few leading conspirators, without any just provocation in facts, and with no possible defense in the Constitution of the United States. Deeply do I regret the necessity of asserting authority by the force of arms ; but the necessity being upon us, then I say to the nation and to every man in it, to the Army and the Navy, to such distinguished apostles of peace as Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Hooker, Hancock, Burnside, Meade, Farragut,—Stand to your guns, load them with canister"and grape, and keep loading them and firing them into the rebel ranks till this treason bows to the demands of law. Yes, stand to your guns, and now settle once for all and forever,'^that the legally expressed will of the majority is, and shall be the law of the land. This is my doctrine for the men on the field and for the people at home. I propose now to plant our nationality upon solid rock, and in the conquest of this rebellion, put an end to all armed resistance to the supreme authority, for at least a long time to come. I have no sympathy with that milk-and-water theology or philanthrophy, that to save indwiduals , would murder a nation. I go for saving the latter, let the cost in life and money be what it may. In such a crisis I want something more than general platitudes about the Union, in our public men and in candidates for the Presidency. I want to know precisely what they mean, and what they will do, in application to the great and vital issue of the/present . hour. If they stand on the war-platform, if they believe in suppressing this rebellion by an armed force, let them say so. If tliey stand on the peace-plat-
12 Ibrrn, if they propose to cure this rebellion by the free use of rose-water, then let them say that. Let them speak out plainly, so that plain people can understand them. The man who fails to do this, can never receive my vote. As a voter, I am not to be hoodwinked by any studied strategy in the use of words. THE MILITARY SITUATION. Having thus canvassed the moral question, I come now to inquire into our military situation. Where are we, and what* are our prospects for the future ? Some tell us, that nothing has been gained, that no progress has been made towards the end, that the war on the part of the Government is a " failure," and hence that any farther prosecution thereof is useless. Such people are of course in favor of peace on the best terms they can get. Is this a true view of the facts past and present ? Let us see. Bear in mind, that all o-reat wars must of necessity be somewhat slow in their character. With half a million of men on each side, they cannot be closed up in a day, a week, or a year ; one battle does not settle the question ; and especially is this true, where, as in our own case, the theatre of war is very large, and the coml|p-tants are men of the same race and the same metal, and have the same style of military training. Overlooking this view, the public enthusiasm is very apt to demand military impossibilities ; and when failing to gain them, just as apt to sink into the state of discouragement. This, to some extent has been the infirmity of the American people ; and it has given to those who oppose the war, or who for party purposes oppose the Administration, the needed opportunity to pronounce the war a "failure,'' and create dissatisfaction with the executive and military authorities of the land. Remember too, that the war on the part of the Government, \vhile defensive in its moral design, has of necessity been one of in/vasioti in a military point of view. The Federal troops have been compelled to invade the territory of the rebellion, to meet the foe in intrenched positions, and encounter all the perils of lighting in an enemy's country. True, this has carried the chief desolations of war to Southern soil ; yet considered in a military
IS light, it has given a very decided advantage to the Rebels. They have had the inner and the shorter lines, and o^ course tne greater facility for the concentration of troops. Add again, that, owing to the structure of Southern society, Jeiferson Davis has been enabled to wield ihe resources of the rebellion with a despotic unity and rapidity of execution, which have not been practicable at the J^orth. His theory has been that of making a tremendous struggle in comparatively a short time, a very good theory if successful, yet exhausting and absolutely fatal if unsuccessful. It consumes the war-power of a people very rapidly, and soon brings them to the extremest limit of possible endurance. I doubt whether any people in the whole history of the world were ever pressed into so much military service in so short a time. Certainly nothing like it has been witnessed in the loyal States. So too, the institution of slavery enabled the Southern people to furnish a larger number of white soldiers in proportion to their population without essentially breaking up the industries of society, than could be supplied from the North. The black man remaining at home, and tilling the soil, was an element of military power ; and this is one reason why the contending armies were for a time so nearly equal in numbers. It is a good reason too, why the Government should strike at slavery, and by placing the black man on the side of the Union, seek to weaken the Rebels in this direction. Add once more, that in the outset the Rebels had a distinct, definite, and desperate policy, for which they were previously prepared. They started in their full strength. The loyal States, on the other hand, were for some time feeling after a policy. It took time for them to find out what they had to do, and then to prepare for doing it. The task grew upon their hands ; and it was not until they were thoroughly instructed by experience, that they fairly settled down to the deliberate business of war. It is true also, that in the commencement the Rebels had the advantage in the line of Generals. Circumstances had made them more of a military people than we were. It required time for the Government to lay its hands upon the right men to lead
14 our armies—the men of skill and the men of pluck—the men who were absolutely true to the flag and would fight for it. Such leaders as Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Farragut, and others of like stamp, were to be founds and in a certain sense made by the actual trial and experience of war. We have found the men at last : we have laid aside the military heroes on paper ; and today we have greatly the advantage over the Rebels in the line of skilled, able, and earnest commanders. England and France too, though professing to be neutral, have been practically the allies of this rebellion. They have given it a powerful moral support ; and England certainly has aided it very largely in the way of war-materials. They have desired its success; and this has strengthened the cause of the Rebels, and proportionately increased the labors and perils of the defenders of the Union. I have stated these several circumstances that you may take them into the account, as I now proceed to the question of actual RESULTS. What are the facts ? We all know that when the present Administration came into power, the Federal Government was practically expelled from all the country south of the Delaware, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers. It had no Army and no Navy, at all adequate to the purposes of even a small war. A treasonable Confederacy, embracing seven States, had already been organized. North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas were just on the brink of joining themselves to the Rebel forces, as they did in a very short time. The danger was innninent that Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky would follow in the same line. Multitudes of traitors and spies swarmed in the piiblic oflices of the Government. Large quantities of war material had been transported from the North to the South, and nearly all the Southern forts had been seized by the Rebels. The peoj^le at the North were divided in opinion ; they looked on with amazement ; the}' were stricken down with a terrible paralysis ; and in fact, they did not know what to do, or whitlier they were drifting. Such was the state of things when the Executive Administration of the Government passed into the hands of Abraham Lincoln.
15 Such is the terrible legacy of difficulties which Mr. Buchanan left for Mr. Lincoln to assume, and from which, if possible, to extricate the nation. The task surely was no easy one. A more mournful spectacle can scarcely be found on the page of history. I^othing like it had ever met any previous Administration when coming into power. Howdo the facts now appear ? Every man not willfully blind or grossly ignorant, must concede that we have made a wonderful advance towards the conquest of the rebellion, which, considering the greatness and difficulties of the work, is without parallel in the annals of the world. We have conquered and now hold full three-fourths of the territory claimed by the Rebels in the outset. We have produced an immense Navy, and with it enforced the most extensive and successful blockade known in history. Beginning at Norfolk, and reaching along the Atlantic seaboard into the Gulf of Mexico up to New^ Orleans, we have, witli the exception of Wilmington and Charleston, captured all the forts and naval stations which the Rebels had seized. We have gained military possession of the Mississippi River, and to-day firmly hold all the fortresses on the great Father of Waters, thus bi-secting the rebellion from North to South. We have split the rebellion up into military fragments and patches, and greatly reduced its power of concentration. We have taken from the enemy more than two thousand cannon. Ten of his principal cities, three of them Capitals of States, have fallen into our possession. General Sherman, by one of the most splendid campaigns of any age, has pressed his way into the very heart of Georgia, and captured Atlanta, inflicting an irreparable loss upon the Rebels, and securing an immense advantage to the Union, General Sheridan has recently given them another deadly blow ; and General Grant will in due season, as we doubt not, do the same thing at Richmond, Every sign, too, abundantly shows, and the statistics of population conclusively prove, that the rebellion has been brought to the very last stages of military life by sheer exhaustion in the way of fighting men. So sa}'- the eminent Generals in the field ; so say those who have been prisoners in the hands of the Rebels ; and
16 so says the merciless conscription with which Jefferson Davis has filled up his wasted ranks, robbing alike the cradle and the grave. The hopes of the Rebels from foreign intervention are at an end. ' Their finances are ruined, and their country almost ruined. They are weak, and we are strong. The cause of the Government and the Country was never more hopeful, and that of the rebellion never more desperate, so far as the military question is concerned. These facts tell their own story. Contrast the rebellion in its present status with the outset ; and where is it, and what is it ? A 'milito/ry failure. It has not succeeded ; and if the people remain faithful to the Government, it cannot succeed. The end is near, unless the American peo])le shall now perpetrate upon themselves the enormous folly of deserting their own cause. We can now sooner conquer a peace than we can possibly procure it by any other means. The last hope of the Rebels is in a divided opinion at the North, that shall in some way palsy the military arm of the Government. They want a change of policy ; and hence they feel a deep interest in the coming Presidential election. This interest, alike in the fact, the character, and the motive, conveys its own lesson to a truly loyal mind. I exceedingly doubt the wisdom of doing that which would most gratify our enemies and best serve their purposes. And now, my friends, and fellow-countrymen, I ask in all soberness and candor, Avhether in view of these facts you call this war a failure on the part of the Government? Is it a failure ? Is this the proper title ? Is it wise, is it true, is it just, is it patriotic, thus to misrepresent and belittle our successes ? Is it generous to charge an Administration through whose agency these results have been gained, with imbecility, stupidity, ignorance, want of energy and skill in the method of conducting the war? Is this the way to speak of the achievements of those noble men who have fallen on the field, and moistened the soil of their country with their blood ? Is this a suitable homage to those gallant commanders whose deeds of valor will give them a place in history as long as history has a being ? Is this indeed the tribute which the American people have it in their heart
17 to pay to the Army and the Navy ? Shall we march back our soldiers, and taunt them with the bitter scorn of military failure ? Shall we look up into Heaven with no gratitude for that overruling providence which has so wonderfully fostered our cause 'i Have we no candor '( Can we not admit facts to be facts 'i Must we distort them for sinister purposes ? Shall we sit down with craven souls, and do nothing but mutter complaints, when the military skies bid us to be cheerful i What shall be thought of those whose highest hopes lie in the failure of their country's cause, who are sad when our armies win, and jubilant when they are defeated^ Such men may be very zealous partisans, but surely they are not patriots* When I look at the facts, I feel proud of my country, proud of its Government, proud of those who have administered that Government, proud of the Navy and the Army. . In the name of our glorious nationality, I accept the record, and bless God for it ^vith all my soul. Never since sin and sorrow entered this fallen world, has so much been done in an equal period of time, and amid equal difficulties. Failure ! That, let me tell you, is not the right word. It is a sin against the facts—a burning shame—a vile slander upon the truth. My hearers, you know better ; the country knows better ; the world knows better ; and even the Ee].)eis Icnow better. Our excellent President, with his plain but comprehensive common sense, with his tried integrity, with his e:!reful but firm judgment, with his true devotion to the tiag of his country, v/ith his io\-e of liberty and equal rights, boi-u of the peoj^le, and trusting the people, thoughtfully watching and following the providence of God, is no failure, whatever the politicians may say. His name Avill be honorably mentioned when they are forgotten. The country has had but few^ such men. Grant, with his tenacity of purpose and versatility of senius, content to do the militarv work committed to his hands, —Sherman flanking the Rebels at a dozen points, and drivino- them our of Atlanta,—Sheridai! " whirling" them through Wincliester at more than double quick, parsuing them to Fisher's Hill, and there giving them a second defeat,—Farragut fastened to the mast of his ship, and sailing by the forts in the Bay of Mobile,—Butler bringing order out of confusion in New
18 Orleans, —the Secretary of State keeping us at peace with the other nations of the Earth,—the Secretaries of the Treasury, the Navy, and the Army, workins; nic^lit and day to supply the means, —the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives giving their best thoughts to the legislation of the country, —the bankers and banking-houses loaning millions upon millions of money to the Government, —the Sanitary and Christian Commissions that have sprung up, as if by magic,—the people that have pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to this cause, —the women whose handy needlework has known no weariness when devoted to the comfort of the soldier, —the wounded and the war-worn veterans that have suffered, and are willing to suffer : —these persons and these agencies are no failure. The men and women who have given themselves to this service, have not failed ; and they will not. The Stars and the Stripes, the emblem of a nation's life and honor, are, and will be, safe in their keeping. The flag floats, and float it will, till not a traitor shall be left to question its supremacy ; and then, I trust, it will continue to float over a peaceful land, the symbol of a happy and a strong people, till the trump of Gabriel sounds the knell of time, and brings Earth's mighty drama to its flnal pause. THE QUESTION OF PEACE. Turning now to the question of peace, I take it for granted, that every man in this audience and all just persons throughout the country desire peace. In this general sense we are all Peacemen. What then is the surest and safest road to this end ? Two plans are proposed for the consideration of the American people, —the one consisting in a continuous and vigorous prosecution of the war till the Rebels lay down their arms, —the other, in a suspension of hostilities on the part of the Government and a convention of the States. Which of these plans shall we adopt? I am in favor of the first, and entirely opposed to the second, and for the following reasons : In the FIRST PLACB, I SAY FEANKLY THAT I DO NOT WANT ANY PEACE WITH THIS REBELLION 80 LONG AS IT MAINTAINS THE ATTITUDE
19 OF ARMED HOSTn.ITY AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT. I pi'OpOSe, for Olie, fairly and squarely to meet tlie question, whether when the people elect their President by a (jonstitutional majority, he shall be peaceably accepted and obeyed by the defeated minority. I do not wish to dodge this issue, or make a compromise in regard to it. I go now for establishing the principle of national sovereignty as inherent in the people. The man who has the credentials of the popular will legally written for his authority to rule, shall rule, so far as I can make this a fact ; and all traitorous resistance thereto, come whence it may, East, West, North, or South, in what form it may, whether as nullification or secession, shall be met, not by surrender, compromise, or negotiation, but by a forcible and triumphant suppression. This is my plank, and my platform. I stand here ; and as a true man, I can stand nowhere else. On this plank rests the life of the nation, and also the future safety of the people. I bow to the Government by whomsoever administered ; and I mean for one that every other citizen shall do the same thing. If it be necessary to fight for this doctrine, then I will fight for it, and keep up the fight till I absolutely conquer treason, or am conquered by it. I believe in coercing rebellion, I recognize no rights in the States, and none in the people, adverse to the coercive power of the supreme authority as organized under the Constitution. You hence see, that I cannot accept, and I do not believe that the American people will accept, the theory of an armistice and a convention of the States as the true remedy at this moment. It surrenders the principle in the interests of rebellion, and withal creates a very dangerous precedent. It virtually confesses that the Government is beaten in this struggle, that it cannot maintain its authority, and that too at the very moment when the military situation proves exactly the reverse. " The resources of wise statesmanship " are very well in their place ; but their pr'oper place is after ^ and not hefare " The Unconditional Submission of the Kebels." Then I shall be prepared for these " resources ;" but till then I am not. Till then I have much more faith in the military arm of the Government. Let that do its work first, and then have tlie talk afterwards. This, I
20 know, is not the doctrine of the so-called Peace-men ; yet it it^ iniue, and hence I take issue with them on this question. If, liowever, tlie majority of the peo))]e shall adopt the theory of tlie Peace-men, then, in accordance with my own princij^al, 1 shall boM' to that decision, whatever may be my private opinions as -to its wisdom. I AM INFLUENCEl). IN THE SECOND PLACE, IN MY JUDGMENT ON THIS QUESTION BY THE PUBLISHED VIEWS OF THE EMINENT GeNERALS TO WHOM WE HAVE COMMITTP^D THE MILITARY CUSTODY OF OUE CAUSE. What do they say ? Let me give you a few examples. General Grant says : — " I state, to all citizens who visit me, that all we want now to insure an early restoration of the Union, is a determined unity of sentiment North. The Rebels have now in their ranks their last man. They have robbed the cradle and the grave equally to get their present force. The end is not far distant, if we will only be true to ourselves. I have no doubt but the eneni}' are exceedingly anxious to hold out until after the Presidential election. They have maiiy hopes from its effects. They hope a counter-revolution. They hope the election of the Peace candidate." So writes General Grant— a soldier and a hero who has made himself well known to the American people. General Sherman, in his recent letter to the Maj'or of Atlanta, remarks : — ""■ We must have Peaoe^ not only in Atlanta, but in all America. To secure this we must stop the war that now desolates our once happy and favored country. To stop the war we must defeat the Rebel armies that are arrayed against the laws and Constitution which all must respect." "We do want, and will have a just obedience to the laws of the United States." General Hooker tells us, that "we must treat this rebellion as a wnse parent would a vicious child, —we must whip him into subjection—no milder discipline will answer the purpose. Some are crying peace, but there can be no peace as long as a Rebel can be found with arms in his hands." " This Union must be preserved ; and there is no way of preserving it but by the power of our armies, —by lighting the conspiracy to death."
21 General Biirnside, says : "' There can be no such thing as laying down of arms, or cessation of hostilities, until the entire authority of t)iis Government is acknowledged by every citizen of our country."' " Would it not be cowardly for us to say that this rebellion cannot be cruslied, and the authority of the Government sustained? There is in my mind no question of it." General Dix declares his earnest desire to do all in his power " to sustain the Government in its efforts to put di,v,-n the rebellion, —an object to be effected, in my judgment, by a steady and unwavering prosecution of the war." He said, in a recent speech at Sandusky, Ohio: "It has been my conviction from the beginning, that we can have no honorable peace until the insurgent armies are dispersed, and the leaders of the rebellion expelled from the country. I believe that a cessation of hostilities would lead inevitably and directly to a recognition of the insurgent States; and when I say this, I need hardly add that I can have no part in any political movement of wdiich the Chicago platform is the basis. No, fellow-citizens, the only hope of securing an honorable peace—a peace which shall restore the Union and the Constitution —lies in a steady, persistent, and unremitting prosecution of the war; and I believe the judgment of every rightthinking man will soon bring him to this conclusion." General Meade tells us, that this war " can only be terminated by hard fighting, and by determined efforts to overcome the armed enemies of the Government." Other Generals have spoken to the same effect. The soldiers are speaking. These men of valor and of deeds evince no disposition to show the white feather. They do not spend their time in croaking and finding fault. They liave met the foe and they know his temper. They exhort the people at home to be firm, to replenish their wasted ranks, and supply the means, and express the strongest confidence that soon they will give the country peace as the fruit of victory. I have a profound respect for their opinions, and hence offer them to you as guides to duty in this hour of trial. It is to be lamented that we could not postpone the question of mere party politics, until we had first, as a united people, saved the Union, The soldiers can do it, and why
22 cannot the politicians at home imitate their good example ? For mere party I care nothing at this time, but for the maintenance of the r\ giit priuci/ples I go to all lengths. Principles viewed in their relation to policy are now everything with me. In the thikd place, the Rebel AuTHOKrriES declare in the MOST unequivocal MANNER, THAT THEY WILL CONSENT TO NO ARRANGEMENT NOT BASED ON THE RECOGNITION OP THE CONFEDERATE Government, and of course the dissolution of the Union. —'' Say to Mr. Lincoln from me," says Jefferson Davis, " that I shall at any time be pleased to receive proposals for peace on the basis of our independence. It will be useless to approach me with any other." So says the Southern press. The Rebel chiefs, the men in power, the men who control the armies of the rebellion, tell you distinctly that they mean to fight this thing through to victory or military failure, unless you yield to their terms of peace. The only interest they feel in our approaching Presidential election arises from the hope, that it may in some way change the policy of the country, and thus the more certainly facilitate their end. Is it then your purpose to preserve this Union, not a Union, but this Union as it is under the Constitution —this Government with its full, untarnished, and undiminished complement of national authority —is this your purpose? Then, in the premises existing, you must Jight for it. You are shut right squarely up to this necessity. You cannot do it by negotiation. You cannot persuade these Rebel chiefs to alter their position by conciliating talk. No party can do it, whether in power or out of it. It is, on the one hand, Victaty, Union, and Peace, or on the other. Submission, Disunion, and Peace ; and between these you must make your choice. I have already made mine : I go for the first ; and hence I go for fighting the battle through to the end, seeing nothing to be gained, but very much that may be lost, by consenting to " a cessation of hostilities.''' In the fourth place, as matters now stand, we can in a short time, if we will, have peace, and also dictate its terms as the fruit of victory. The past success of our arms and the present state of the rebellion make this proposition certain. A fewmore
23 heavy blows such as our armies can give, and if we properly support them, will give, will finish up the Confederate Government of Jeflferson Davis and his associate conspirators, and sweep it from the earth as an organized military power ; and then we shall be in a position to speak directly to the people of the several States, and propose to them, and not to Jefferson Davis, suitable measures for an honorable and Constitutional re-union. We have nothing to do with this arch-traitor but to conquer him, and nothing to do with his ConsTress but to annihilate it. This I am fully persuaded, is the shortest and surest road to any peace to which a true Union man can ever give his consent. I doubt whether, after the trial of three years, especially when we are so near the final result, and when we can grasp that result if we will, it is wise to change our policy or its agency for any new experiments. iVll the reasons which dictated this policy in the outset, apply with augmented force at the present time. In my judgment the best peace-commission is a strong army well commanded. The best peace-commissioners are the very men we now have in the field. They will conquer a peace soon if we do not call them ofi" from thp task ; and then Jefferson Davis will be no longer Jefi^erson Davis the President of the Confederate States of America, but Jefferson Davis the indicted criminal, and if convicted, a candidate for the gallows. In the fifth place, the proposition fob a cessation of hostilities WITH A VIEW TO " AN, ULTIMATE CONVENTION" OF THE States, is, I think, surrounded with the most fearful uncertainties AND perils. It is a dark and dangerous road for the nation to travel in. Let us see. To whomis this proposition to be submitted ? Of course to the Confederate Authorities at Richmond, —the men who are now conducting hostilities on the Rebel side, and who expressly tell us that they will never consent to a convention for any such purpose as the one we have in view. Fromlohom is this proposition to come in the first instance ? Of course from the Government of these United States. This is the theory now put before the American people for their consideration.
24 In what position is the Government then placed, and the cause it represents? After liaving attempted to crush the re])ellion, and spent miUions of money, and sacrificed thousands of lives, and almost gained the point, the Government, according to this theory, backs down, and the people back down, and both virtually confess their inability to complete the work, and hence sue* for terms of peace with armed traitors. The treason is triumphant, and the Governmental authority vanquished and defeated. Gracious Heaven ! Shades of the honored and heroic* dead I Ellsworth, Lyon, Kearny, Wadsworth, Sedgwick, McPherson I brave and noble men, mouldering in the patriot's grave—fortunate in having fallen too soon to witness the disgrace of your arms I Has it come to this I Have you given your lives for a nation of braggarts, and a nation of cowards au'l poltroons ? Have you fought for a principle and a cause, and fought them almost into victory, only to have both betrayed and dishonored at last if In the name of the Army and the ISTavy, and by all the sacred memories that cluster around their deeds immortal, I ask more than twenty millions of people whether they will consent to such an infamy ? Better, yes, infinitely better, not to have began the contest at all than to pause now before you finish it. " "We beseech you," say the officers and soldiers at Nashville in their recent address to the American people, "■ beware of any man, or any body of men, who, when success is so near, urges a suspension of hostilities. Such a proposition is either the height of folly or tlie height of treason,—treason all the more hatefnl, because the more cowardly than the treason of those we fight." "We have victory in our hands. If we fail to clutch it and retain it now, we are criminal, false to our past history, false to our nation, false to the age, false to humanity, false to God." These ringing words speak the soldier's heart. Mark well the fact, that this proposed " cessation of hostilities " is to be either temporartj or Jinal. If the former, then you nnist resume fighting in tlie event of failure to agree upon terms of peace ; and if so, I do not see what you gain provided the belligerent parties fail to agree, which, let me tell you, is the overwhelming probability in the case. You will have to sup-
25 port the ArmJ and the Navy" during this armistice ; you will give the rebellion time to recover itself; you will demoralize and disgrace your own soldiery ; and then you will return to hostilities under the absolute necessity of fighting it out at last, or consenting to a dissolution of the Union. If, however, the armistice be Jkial, then, in the event of failure to agree upon the terms of peace under the same government, the Union is dissolved, and the Southern Confederacy established as an independant nation. It is hence obvious, that, in either aspect of the case, this doctrine of an armistice promises nothing for the national cause, and threatens much against it, I am afraid of it. I think it much safer to conquer a peace first, and apply '• the resources of wise statesmanship " afterwards. Suppose, however, that, by resorting to an armistice, you could bring the Rebels back into the Union ; let this be granted for the sake of the argument ; and what then are likely to be their demands as the conditions of peace, if you go before them in this attitude ? Have you tlionght of this question ? They will virtually dictate the terms of peace. Practically they will be the conquerors. Tliey will have fought you till you cannot or dare not fight them any longer. Elated with their own success, as well they might be, they will demand new guaranties for slavery. They w^ill demand such modifications of our political system as will forever protect them against the growth of the true democratic principle. They will demand the recognition of their favorite doctrine of State Rights, always involving the right of Secession. They will demand a new style of Union. They will demand too, that the nation shall assume the enormous war debt which they have contracted, thus paying the expenses of the rebellion. The men with whom you will conduct this negotiation, if at all, are very desperate men ; they constitute the bone and sinew of the slaveholding oligarchy ; their politic^al necessities as public men commit them to the success of the rebellion, or to something that in their judgment shall be nearly its equivalent ; in the bargain to be made they must come off with flying colors ; and now the very moment that you release these men from the deadly pressure of the military
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